VMware vSphere Review - why 3 stars?

Shlomi Lavi / updated: Mar 03, 2022

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What is VMware vSphere?

VMware vSphere is a server virtualization solution that can help users to build their own cloud infrastructure. The software is user-friendly and comes with a wide range of cloud features for users. The latest version of vSphere has something to offer both small and large shops.

VMware, the company behind vSphere, is the industry leading virtualization software company. The company has served over 500,000 customers using their virtualization software. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA and over 14,000 employees are currently working for them.

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Who is it best for?

VMware vSphere is perfect for companies of all shapes and sizes. Retail, food and beverage, insurance, manufacturing, technology, telecommunication, government, non-profits, eCommerce, financial service and insurance industries can use this software. Mazda, Symantec and Oxford University are some of the clients of VMware vSphere.

Main features and functionalities

VMware vSphere comes with network management, automation, capacity management, performance monitoring and automated provisioning features. The vSphere ESXi can help users to abstract server hardware resources as a virtualization layer and make them shareable by creating multiple virtual machines. The vMotion feature of VMware vSphere can help users to avoid downtime with its planned server maintenance feature. Users can set priority access to network resources according to their preferred or established business rules.

The business continuity and security feature includes vMotion, high availability, storage vMotion, data protection, hot add, vSheild Endpoint and vSphere Replication. The automated administration and provisioning features offer distributed switch, storage APIs for multipathing and Array integration and host profiles and auto deploy features. The vSphere hosts can be patched and deployed in minutes using the automation features.

What is the actual cost?

The cost of license starts at $995 per year. ITQlick pricing score is 4.2 out of 10 (10 is most expensive). Access ITQlick pricing guide for VMware vSphere.

Pros

• VMware vSphere is user-friendly and comes with brilliant training programs to help users get the best out of this software
• VMware vSphere’s virtualization solution has something to offer for companies of all sizes
• The customer support of VMware vSphere offers general and premier support plans for users
• The virtualization software’s auto deploy feature can help users to patch and deploy vSphere hosts in just a few minutes
• The virtualization solution comes with App HA feature to help users recover from OS or application failure

Cons

• VMware vSphere’s Android app doesn’t offer console view feature which can be a problem for some users
• VMware vSphere’s latest version changed the PC-based management client to the web-client system which can be a problem for some users
• The customer support of VMware vSphere offers 24/7 hours live support to Premium support users only
• The virtualization software’s flash read cache and storage I/O feature is only available for Enterprise Plus plan users
• The virtualization solution’s distributed switching feature is not available for Standard and Enterprise edition users

How it stacks up?

Access a head to head analysis of VMware vSphere vs alternative software solutions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)